Advanced/Plus Difficile… Irresistible!

Looking through my pattern stash/library I realised that quite a lot of my old Vogue patterns are graded ‘Advanced/Plus difficile’. Why is that phrase so appealing to me? It just reveals that side of me that can’t resist a challenge. At times I think I’ve viewed my sewing like an extreme sport, the more challenging […]

Sleevetober? A twist in the tale.

I didn’t have time to enter #sleevefest as I was travelling, nevertheless, I am bringing it with a sleeve AND and twist front on my latest make. This dress is my favourite RTW dress and I’ve worn it nearly to death. I have been trying to figure out the twist front for years without success! […]

Self drafted T-shirt goes long – taking it to the Maxi.

In March I was getting my sewjo back with a vengeance and sewed my first self-drafted item for a while. I made a simple T-shirt based on an old RTW favourite and used some dramatic fabric to give it life. I’m going to use the same technique and extend that self-made pattern into a maxi […]

Pattern testing: Sinclair Pattern’s Clementine dress

Once you get to a certain degree of proficiency, one of the key ambitions of many sewists is to take off the training wheels of commercial dress patterns and make your own. Once I had mastered seams and zips and darts and waistbands and had made a few tailored items, this idea began to form in my […]